1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to processing of a feedstock and more particularly to a pumpbox for receiving a hydrocarbon feedstock.
2. Description of Related Art
Hydrocarbon feedstocks are generally viscous and may be entrained with other components such as rock, sand, clay and other minerals. As a result, such feedstocks require processing to separate useful hydrocarbon products from residue before transport and refining.
One example of a hydrocarbon ore deposit is the Northern Alberta oil sands, which comprises about 70 to about 90 percent by weight of mineral solids including sand and clay, about 1 to about 10 percent by weight of water, and a bitumen or oil film. The bitumen may be present in amounts ranging from a trace amount up to as much as 20 percent by weight. Due to the highly viscous nature of bitumen, when excavated some of the ore may remain as clumps of oversize ore that requires sizing to produce a sized ore feed suitable for processing. The ore may also be frozen due to the northerly geographic location of many oil sands deposits, making sizing of the ore more difficult. The sized ore feed is typically processed by adding water to form a slurry in a location proximate to the ore deposit, and the resulting slurry is hydro-transported through a pipeline to a processing plant, where the slurry forms the feedstock for a processing plant that separates hydrocarbon products from the sand and other minerals.
Low specific gravity hydrocarbons such as bitumen froth may be separated from sand and water, which generally have higher specific gravity, by various gravity separation processes. There remains a need for improved processes and apparatus for treating heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks.